INDIANAPOLIS
Making two walks to the awards’ podium at the Boys State Swimming and Diving Finals wasn’t a bad way for Jacob Destrampe to spend part of his Saturday afternoon.
It could prove to be the first of many for the Franklin Community freshman.
Destrampe left the IUPUI Natatorium with a third-place medal from the 200-yard freestyle (1:39.81) and one representing his sixth-place performance in the 100 free in a time of 45.99 seconds.
As a team, the Grizzly Cubs finished 20th with a total of 31 points.
“Once again we had a really young roster, but these boys exceeded all my expectations. More than anything I’m ready to grind and get back to work for next year,” Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said. “We’ve got a great group coming back, and have the addition of a couple (current) eighth-graders.”
To demonstrate the experience Destrampe was up against, consider all seven of the swimmers joining him on the podium following the 200 free were seniors. Three of the top finishers in the 100 freestyle were 12th-graders.
“Being a freshman, I’m happy with third. I’m just happy I came to finals,” Destrampe said. “I was definitely more tired than I was (Friday), which makes it hard to drop more time.”
Indian Creek senior Wyeth Brock made his final high school meet memorable by placing 11th in the 100 backstroke in a time of 52.54 seconds and 12th in the 100 butterfly in 51.69 seconds.
“I would have liked to drop some time, but it’s more about racing and holding your spot, and that’s what I did. Overall, it was a pretty good day,” Brock said. “I don’t know if I performed better in one than the other, but my backstroke felt a little bit better than my butterfly.”
Another senior, Center Grove’s Alex Krasutsky, took second in the consolation race of the 100 breaststroke, which placed him 10th overall. Krasutsky’s time was 58.34 seconds after clocking a 57.97 in the preliminaries.
“I feel, I guess you could say, accomplished because I never thought I would break 1 minute. That was a big step at sectional. The 58.34 wasn’t my best, but it was alright,” said Krasutsky, who admits he’s thoroughly enjoyed his time representing coach Jim Todd’s program.
“It was the best time of my life. In retrospect, it went by so fast. During the off-season we’re always saying, ‘Man, I wish the season would start.’ As soon as it starts it flies by, especially your senior year. It felt like it was only a week long.”
Krasutsky posted what was the 20th-fastest time in the 200 individual medley preliminaries with a 1:56.33.
“Alex had a great sectional weekend, and (Friday) night he had his lifetime best in the IM (individual medley) and led off the 200 free relay. We’ve sure asked a lot of him, but he did a great, great job,” Todd said.
“Alex is the only senior swimmer that we lose. We were young this season. Very inexperienced. But the improvement that we made this year is definitely promising.”
Earlier in the day, Destrampe swam first leg of the Grizzly Cubs’ 200 medley relay team, which placed 16th in a time of 1:38.24. Joining him were sophomore Michael Couet, freshman Griffin Edwards and junior anchor Andrew Rice.
“We were a little off. The first three legs were just a hair slower than they were a day ago,” DeWitt said. “When you have a team that’s young, good experience or bad experience, it’s all experience.”
Center Grove junior Noah Tallman’s time of 4:45.37 placed him 19th in the 500-yard freestyle, while Franklin freshman diver Gauge Creech finished 25th.
The Trojans’ 200 free relay foursome of, in order, Krasutsky, Jamie Vance, Alex Feitl and Tallman came in 21st with a time of 1:28.69. The same group took 21st in the 400 relay in 3:15.01.
